“Seduce me. Write letters to me. And poems, I love poems. Ravish me with your words. Seduce me.”

“What would you like to do with my neck?’ I asked. ‘Seduce me with your words. Feel free.”

“I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”

“I am interested in language because it wounds or seduces me.”

“When trying to seduce a woman, a writer says: 'I'm a writer', and scribbles a poem on a napkin. It always works.”

“If I could sum up my poetry in a few well-chosen words, the result might be a poem. Several years ago, when I was asked to say something on this topic, I came up with the notion that for me the making of poems is both a commemoration (a moment captured) and an evocation (the archaeologist manqué side of me digging into something buried and bringing it to light). But I also said that I find the processes that bring poems into being mysterious, and I wouldn't really wish to know them; the thread that links the first unwilled impulse to the object I acknowledge as the completed poem is a tenuous one, easily broken. If I knew the answers to these riddles, I would write more poems, and better ones. "Simple Poem" is as close as I can get to a credo': Simple Poem I shall make it simple so you understand.Making it simple will make it clear for me.When you have read it, take me by the handAs children do, loving simplicity. This is the simple poem I have made.Tell me you understand. But when you doDon't ask me in return if I have saidAll that I meant, or whether it is true.”